MUMBAI: After a span of 48 years, a film based on the Nanavati murder case is being planned.

In the real-life story of crime and passion, Cdr. Kawas Manekshaw Nanavati, on his return from an assignment one day in 1959, was outraged to find that the British-born wife he adored had allowed herself to be seduced by his friend of 15 years, Prem Ahuja.

After being talked out of committing suicide by his repentant wife, a mother of three, he went to the naval base, picked up a revolver and headed for his friend‘s house. There he confronted him and asked if he intended to marry his wife and accept their children.

Philanderer Ahuja is reported to have retorted that he could not marry every woman he slept with. This resulted in a scuffle between the two men in which Ahuja got killed.

Despite a disclaimer at the outset, the black and white film Yeh Rastey Hain Pyar Ke produced by Sunil Dutt and directed by R.K. Nayyar was a re-play of the Nanavati case. Only, the end was altered to show that the ‘guilt-ridden‘ wife (Leela Naidu) feels ‘defiled‘ for having slept with another man and dies in her husband‘s (Sunil Dutt) arms in the courtroom after he is pronounced ‘not guilty‘. The film was released in 1963.

The new film to be produced by Pooja Bhatt‘s Fisheye Network and Dino Morea‘s Clockwork Films, is to be directed by Soni Razdan. She had earlier directed Nazar that starred Pakistani actress Meera, Ashmit Patel and Koel Purie.